Monsters of Television

“Krypton will rise again. And all humankind will kneel before Zod.”

Season 9 has been one very long crawl to an endgame that we all know is coming. Chloe, Oliver, the audience. Everyone knows Zod is evil and that Clark is gonna have to man up and kick his ass. As lines become drawn and the endgame creeps nearer, Superman-to-be may finally be catching up to everyone else. And he’s the one with the super speed.

This episode took a very “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” approach to relationship forging between the characters. Old rivals and foes having to sacrifice their pride and set aside their differences for a grater goal. We saw Chloe and Tess working together to break out of a lock-down at Watchtower and escape the clutches of Checkmate’s White Knight.What began as a Tess Mercer attempt at data thievery turned into a very sexy remake of Panic Room. While the two ladies had to team up to break out as Checkmate bared down on them, that didn’t stop them from tossing the usual witty quips at one another. Chloe won for the night: “I knew you were the Kandorians lapdog but I didn’t know you were Zod’s little bitch too.” But at the end of the day, an uneasy alliance between the two was formed. How long will that last? Read more »

“You’re with me now.”

It is a moving the pieces episode, as Jason Mittell noted. I’m not going to gripe about it, though a part of me really wants to. I defended “Recon” when it aired, but that was in large part because the episode was both narratively and emotionally needed, a breather episode as I called it, a way to regroup after the havoc in previous episodes.

“The Last Recruit” lacks the emotional necessity that made “Recon” work. Without the emotional attachment, “The Last Recruit” feels like narrative vegetables, something that’s good for the story, but that I don’t really want. Did we have lingering questions? Yes (well, question, really, and that was Desmond’s fate down in the well), but there wasn’t much else hanging in the air that we needed to recover from in the previous episodes. So “The Last Recruit” may serve, as Mittell notes, as the first hour in the show’s two-part finale structure (tramping through the jungle, getting onto transportation, things exploding) before settling into the thrilling conclusion. Read more »

“Do you even remember what it was like to have a dream?”

In last night’s Community review I discussed a bit about the importance of maintaining a balance in an ensemble, and how Community showcases the ability to make being unbalanced not only a conflict for the plot, but to show how important each member is. Party Down is still trying to work the kinks in the role of Lydia, and the overall comedy in the show is suffering a bit for it.

I think Lydia could work within the ensemble, but I feel like when the character was conceptualized (a stage mom) they didn’t figure out a way to better integrate her position as someone who wants stardom (even if indirectly through her daughter) among all these other people, toiling away at their dreams. Indeed, it’s why Charlotte worked so well: she had already hit her height as an actress and was able to provide absurd mentorly advice. What is Lydia’s role in this show? Read more »

“I once met Sting at a Cracker Barrel.”

I often worry about running out things to say about Community. I can only say so many nice things every week about this show, and at some point I think I’m going to get repetitive. I almost want a bad episode to happen so I can lament it, say “Oh, I knew it when…” for a nice change of pace. I doubt this will happen.

“The Art of Discourse” is a very fine episode, with plenty of nice laughs but also some good structural elements in play, even if the the one element I wanted to pay off, the conflict between Jeff and Britta with the jerk-ass high schoolers, didn’t really reach the conclusion I wanted.

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“After missing so many little deaths, he should be here for the big one.”

Are we to believe that Taub could really pull this?

Taub is a jackass. I didn’t like him when he was selected from the pool of candidates that gave us Kutner and 13. I didn’t like him his first go-round as a fellow. I cheered when he left and growled when he came back (even though he was reintroduced with 13). So you can imagine my distaste when we have a Taub-centric episode. But, whenever they want to do a show about cheating spouses, they have to wheel out the hobbit.

The patient with the cheating heart is part of an open marriage and she, in fact, is about to get down with a sex buddy when she has an attack in her bowls. The idea of an open marriage intrigues the man-children of the group (i.e. not Chase or Foreman) and puts the idea in Taub’s itty bitty head that this might be a good idea to bring up to his wife.

What should have ensued was a loud guffaw from his long suffering wife but, instead, this is really the main source of non-patient drama for the episode because we’re to assume Taub is some kind of dwarvian lethario. We can only assume it’s because he offers women a peek as his pot of gold.

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“Can’t. You see, in my head, the only way the plane remains aloft is if I’m rooting for it.”

Slight disparity in nighttime wear.

What a waste.

If you’ve been following my reviews of Chuck, you’ll notice an increased enthusiasm for the growing intensity and a demonstration of better story-telling in the last few weeks. Some might even say it was “overly optimistic.” Nay, I said, not overly optimistic. This is clearly where this show is going and finally (finally!) they know where they’re going. This is a mature show, a show with direction, a show with purpose, a show that knows who it is and that will take it over the bubble so it can anchor a soon-to-be fledgling NBC schedule. And then I get this.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see Chuck and Sarah’s turn of events. Happy to see them air out their opposite-of-differences (concordances?) and finally tell each other how they really feel. Sorry if I spoiled it for anyone but, yes, it finally happened. Chuck and Sarah have finally admitted it to each other (for the hundredth time) and they are together. So much opportunity to treat this burgeoning relationship with the same dark (for Chuck) touch that has haunted the season, I waited for them mull over what makes this thing hard, one the Cardinal Rule of Spying is “Never fall in love (especially with a spy).” They’re targets that make the other person vulnerable in hostage situations. They’re always in danger. They’re always pretending to be someone else. But it was not to be in this episode

Okay, maybe those themes are a little too much pressure on an event that has been three years in the making, one that has been doggedly desired by superfans everywhere. But I wanted them to maintain the darker tone of this season. It’s hard to demand something more realistic from a show about a guy that holds all the government’s secrets in his head because he saw a picture of a sunflower, but maybe I wanted something more grounded.

Instead I got something treacly, oversentimental, divergent from tone, and with not enough Jeffster.

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“Because you knew if I stayed here, I’d be faced with an impossible choice.“

“The Beast Below” is an episode that shows that the new series of Doctor Who is still not done cooking.

To be fair, I’ve always found the second episode of any new series in the relaunch to be a little “Meh.” Sure, “The End of the World” had the Doctor grooving to “Tainted Love”, but it was a weak episode overall. “Tooth and Claw” has a LOT of running around (even for a Davies episode), “The Shakespeare Code” is just plain bad (so bad), and “The Fires of Pompeii” retraces old ground about the companion wanting to alter time to save some bystanders. Indeed, the job of the second episode seems to be to provide any newcomers to the franchise a sense of how the show operates. And while this is an admirable thing, it’s still something that your first episode should really accomplish.

A part of this could just be the expectations that I have for Moffat’s brand of storytelling. He excels at creepiness (“Are you my mummy?”) and working in humor to those situations (“All that dancing!”) so that both feel exceptionally enhanced. Of course Moffat’s not writing all of these episodes, so I shouldn’t expect it all the time, but there’s very clearly a thematic bent to the series that I hope the rest of the staff is able to follow through on. As a result, “The Beast Below” has a great deal of potential for creepiness and twisted fairy tale stuff, but it’s not exactly fork tender yet.

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“In the foster home, my hair was my room.”

Andy Bernard: Cake Face.

Is it weird to anyone else that Erin is the most intriguing character this season?

Sure, Pam and Jim had a baby and Stanley is openly cheating on his wife (yeah, remember that?) but everyone else’s backstory is so vanilla compared to the (albeit relative) complexity of their secretary. She confirmed this week that she was not just from a foster home (like her biological parents fostered children) but that she was actually in the foster care system (like her biological parents didn’t raise her). What seemed like a sunny disposition suddenly became a beard for something darker and maladjusted. And it’s fitting that possibly the most superficial character on the show (in terms of background depth) draws out the crazy in her. Read more »

“Not give a shit, like a human being.”

Party Down is a show that I only know from Netflix Watch Instantly. I don’t get Starz ( orany premium cable for that matter), so I didn’t find out about the show until last winter when I mainlined the series. At first I wasn’t keen on the show, but about four episodes in the show and I found each other, and I can feel very confident in declaring it a brilliant comedy series that needs more and more eyeballs watching it.

To introduce the show, since I’m sure a few of you may not be watching it (yet), I’ll simply say it deals with the trials and tribulations of a group of catering service employees, all of whom have grander dreams than to serve little sandwiches at really weird functions (ranging from a botched sweet 16 party to a celebration of a Russian mobster). Each episode finds the cast in a new situation, so functions as a workplace comedy with an ever changing workplace.

But the show is also a squirm comedy, like Curb Your Enthusiasm (though not nearly as squirm-inducing). It’s happy to take apart social mores, but more with a sly wink than a pregnant linger like Curb. It’s a show that’s funny and heart breaking, with sublime writing and stellar acting. You need to be watching it. Read more »

“Think slutty Grace Kelly.”

A double dose of 30 Rock would normally be cause for celebration. However, this season’s lack of consistency (or funny) has resulted in a mixed bag of humor and enjoyment. And that gets represented in these two episodes. “Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter” is the stronger of the two, with solid comedy and a nicely balanced episode without a lot of poorly developed storylines. “Khonani,” on the other hand, suffers from being repetitive and, really, untimely.

It is a problem that 30 Rock faces due to its weird production schedule (time allowed for Baldwin and Fey to make, and then promote, movies) and then weirder airing sequences. There doesn’t seem to be a throughline in the show any longer, and perhaps a course change is needed. Read more »